Talking Angela app

A number of children this week have raised concerns about an app they have downloaded called Talking Angela.

A number of children in school have raised concerns about an app they have downloaded called Talking Angela.

Having carried out a little research in response to this through a quick Google search, the below, copied from a Guardian newspaper article, provides some helpful advice.

This is the main thing to understand about Talking Angela: it’s an app aimed at children and adults alike, including text-chat that would seem cheeky and silly for the latter, but inappropriate for the former. The problem is the lack of a strong-enough barrier between the two modes.

When it comes down to it, your children are still going to be chatting to and sticking their tongues out at a cartoon cat, not falling into (any of the traps) mentioned on Facebook.

A couple of commenters on my previous article about the Talking Angela hoax suggested concerns about the app normalising the kind of conversations that you wouldn’t want children having with strangers in the real world. That’s a legitimate criticism, and one that Outfit7 should act on by making it harder for kids to turn off the Child Mode.

But the hoax is a reminder that as parents, we also have responsibilities to be aware of what apps our kids are using and how they work – from first-hand experience. For now, I would steer my children to other apps rather than Talking Angela, but that’s based on testing it out for myself, rather than believing hysterical ALL-CAPS warnings posted on Facebook.

As we have mentioned to the children during our recent work on e-safety, maintaining a dialogue between parents and children is so important. The e-saftey section of the school website has links to various organisations who provide advice and information it is well worth parents reading so that they are aware of how to help keep their children safe online.